because life is about looking forward to the future

So, I’m gonna try to start moving my long post on Path or other socmed here. So this should be a quick blogpost — pardon all the mixed language as I wanna type super fast before the idea vanished from ma head 💆🏼

The objective is pretty simple: just as a note to my future self that I’ve once had the thought. If you, accidentally be here and now reading this, may this will be a beneficial post for you.

Adam. Tau donggg siapa. Our great great father was once created in heaven. This concept implies that heaven is a place where human belongs. A home. Andddd, you know the story continues.. that iblis came and Adam fooled by him, so Adam fell to Dunya.

Here in dunya, we start a journey. It’s like a trip. Ada pilihan untuk kembali balik ke rumah lagi, bisa nyasar nggak balik2, bisa menemukan rumah baru. The end is yours to choose. But of course ideally, after all the long journey, we should go back home.

So the idea is, how to make a good journey. It’s just a trip. It’s temporary. We will go back home eventually.

You know when you travel abroad and you find sambal belibis or Teh Kotak and you’re really excited about it cause you’re missing it so much and it suddenly feels like homeee? Allah azza wa jalla mentioned it also in quran, He explains that heaven has trees, rivers, milk and honey. Things we appreciate here in Dunya. We’re tasting a glimpse of it and deep inside we’re missing it from our original home. ihdinas siratal mustaqim, may He guides us to the straight path. To the light, that ignites our bones and will guide you home — eh kok jadi lagu coldplay 😉

Btw, in this Ramadhan I just watched a very good reminder from Nouman’s lecture. Bahwasannya untuk kembali naik ke atas, pulang ke rumah, kita butuh tali untuk naik. And the rope is being sent in this month — quran.

That’s the map. That’s the rope. That’s the guideline we can learn from, on how to enjoy the journey, and go back home. This is the month not only to celebrate the time when He sent us the ropes, but also the month when He will listen our hopes (hey it rhymes!). Gimana2?

Picture 1: I like how my colleagues put the product I managed as my last name on a birthday cake. And oh, picture was taken by my boss.

Picture 2: I like how my Indian girls says “Ika, in Indian culture we need to feed you the first bite of our cake, it’s a symbol that we share the sweetness of life” — after that one by one people were putting their spoon on my face. I’m opening my mouth sincerely. 🍰

Picture 3: I like how my SF besties were calling me at 11.45, in the middle of my 1:1 meeting with ma boss. Then buzz me with picture “we’re on our way. Go PP. now!” They were having back to back meeting. And in the middle of their super busy Wednesday, they would drive jakarta’s road for having a quick lunch with me.

Picture 4: it was the second meeting of the day. My colleague took a pict of me, candidly. I was giving directions to the new telesales team, sharing them bullets to go to the cloud war ☁️ He posted that on our MS-love-to-eat-gengs.

Picture 5: another colleague sent me a happy birthday line with the link of my fav band’s latest tunes. Later at night I found their gig sched on a weekend. How the universe conspires to greet me “Happy Birthday” 🙂

Picture 6: blew the candle. Came home so tired. And all peeps at home were waiting for me to had dinner together ((heartmelt)). It was almost 10 PM — Jakarta traffic’s not really nice tonight. We had nasi kuning ayam bakar together.

I thank you for all the prayers and wishes. I want you to know that I read every words carefully, wholeheartedly. So happy to acknowledge that soooo many of you were thinking about me. Gave a time to pause from your busy routines — just to threw me a greet, wish, even questions like “how was your birthday?”, “you had a blast?”. Once more, I thank you all.

I thank You. For all greatness and challenges I got. For presents that never fails to amaze me. For hope and faith, to face what awaits.

This is the time, when almost everyone are making the reflection. Page 365 of 365. December 31st just couple hours before a new calendar will be hanged.

Just like everyone, I’m taking a bit of me time. At the corner of a good cafe gallery. Near my Yoga class will be held in 55 mins. I leave a bit early from my fancy office. Have a bite of choco-lava cake. And remember all the sweets that I had within a year. Here are couple things I should grateful of this year.

Great playground to learn.

I spend more than 8 hours a day on the most popular office building in the city. Challenge myself to give ma best performance to an IT company. This industry isn’t slow at all. There are always new things to absorb — sometimes in super fast period of time. So lucky I work with great teams. Most of them have a-can-do-atittude, as well as willingness to learn and to collaborate. Can’t imagine to run these kind of business without those mindsets. As a newb in an office life, I can say Imma lucky bastard.

Work has helped me a lot in learning a rhythm. To put things that I need in the future at a good sequence. To get prepared for any unpredictable things that could’ve happened. To manage the unmanaged. They’re not easy. Couple of times I smiled when leaving a meeting room, couple of times I cried too. But, you know, it’s a playground. It’s suppose to makes you happy while playing. sometime’s you fell from a swing, or getting hit by a bad friend, but you still come to the same playground the next day. You try another vehicle. You make friends with a new comer. See if you can still find the fun you wanna get on there.

Great friends along the way.

Not saying that I have a perfect non-office life. I lose friends, get (even better) ones too. They come and go within a year, teaching life lessons. One of good lesson is: don’t get too attached. We never have any of these things at the first place anyway, so always knew that there will be a time to lose them. We just don’t know how and when. Experience the joy as well as hurts they may put. Life won’t be balanced without those.

Great family and home.

Redefining the word “family” and “home” are not as simple as packed your things into cases and move to a new place (The second one is not easy too, btw). This year, I can say that this is the most difficult challenge that I need to face. This is how I survived: I ask this question everytime: “Think, Ika: what would you do differently to make this better?”, then I’ll do it, and repeat. “Better things” that I could think of at that time, might not “better enough” — you know, I’m not that smart. But I knew that I took a tiny step towards a light.

After all, every definition in life will eventually change anyway. Not only the definition of Home and Family.

I called Bandung a home in 2013, San Francisco at 2014, and now Jakarta for 2015. Changes will grow you. That’s what I believe.

So, do I survive?

2015 is not an easy year at all. Hustles. Tears. Fear. Scars. All were there. But there were also joy, contentment, and compassion stopped by. A month before new year, and I start thinking already about excited things thay I wanna get next year. Take deep breaths, close eyes, and picture sweet moments that will come.

Will do more travel. Will pray harder. sleep better. Exercise more often. Eat nice fruits. Put bigger smile. And most of all, live happier.

Happy new year, readers! I do hope you had a great year as mine. See you on 2016!

Ps: Pics are from our last 3200KM road trip, ended in Bali. We celebrated 30th annivs of Mom and Dad. Saw nice places. And got bonded for sure.

“Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young“, commonly known by the title “Wear Sunscreen“,[1] is an essay written as a hypothetical commencement speech by columnistMary Schmich, originally published in June 1997 in the Chicago Tribune. The essay, giving various pieces of advice on how to live a happier life and avoid common frustrations, spread massively via viral email, often erroneously described as a commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut at MIT.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

Ada banyak lagi cerita, ada yang terlihat, ada yang tidak. I don’t need an HBO to make me stay and watch these moments. This somehow gives me a routine me-time. To just sit, see, and eventually feel grateful about the day I just had.

When I had a bad day, I knew I’m not the only one who have one. These strong people would still try to have a better day, tomorrow. And I should do the same, even try better. When I had a superb day,.. Well I like to throw smiles to random people. Just to pass a good energy that I have. I start to enjoy the rhythm. Seeing these moments is wayyyy better than driving alone, or texting on a cab.

is a time I use to reflect what I’ve done and gotten 5 days before, and plan another excitement 5 days after.

Is a time when I can spend sometime with mom, lil bro, and dad.

Is a time when I can sleep and wake up a lil bit late.

—–

Anyway, I enjoyed my weekend!

On Saturday, I had enough sleeps, breakfast with mom, coffee with baes, drove parents to a party and ate good stuffs there.

On Sunday I watched Tom Cruise in MI5, saloon time with mom (and now having a super good smell on my hair), had a good sandwich while preparing work for Monday and enjoyed Tohpati songs on my way home.

“Jangan lupa set rhythm-nya ya, Ika”, begitu kata Mas Aries, my direct supervisor at the office. He is an amazing person. He gives me lotsa lessons. And one of them is: the importance of doing things repetitively.

By writing this post, I wanna remind myself that having a rhythmic life is essential. Memiliki sebuah keteraturan, keberulangan yang disiplin, adalah penting.